Want to live in the world's happiest place? This is where you should go...

By Ivana Kottasova and Irene Chapple, CNN

Updated 1:52 PM ET, Mon May 5, 2014

The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – A trip to Australia, the world's happiest industrialized nation, wouldn't be complete without visiting the Great Barrier Reef. It's one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Australia ranks at the top in civic engagement, which looks at voters' participation among other criteria. It also comes out above average, in the list of 36 countries, in environmental quality, health status, housing, personal security, jobs and earnings, education and skills, subjective well-being, social connections, and income and wealth. The only category in which Australia lags behind the average is work-life balance, the OECD says.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – A hiker enjoys a sunny day on the Lofoten islands in Norway, the second happiest country. According to the research, Norway ranks above average in all of the 11 dimensions that the OECD considers as "essential to a good life."

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – In Sweden, the third happiest country, delight in the medieval architecture of Stockholm's Gamla Stan, a historical city center. Sweden is the top performer in environmental quality, but it ranks slightly below the average in personal security -- another key indicator in the quality of life index.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – Pedestrians enjoy the weather in the Christians Havn district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The Danes enjoy the best work-life balance of all OECD countries, and also rank at the top in social connections. Denmark comes in at number four on the OECD list.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – Canada ranked at number five on the OECD Better LIfe Index. Banff National Park may be one of the reasons why. Canada's oldest national park spans more than 2,500 square miles of mountains, glaciers, forests and lakes. The OECD praises Canadians, who enjoy above the average quality of life in all but one category -- the work-life balance.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – Visit Zermatt in Switzerland to find some of the best ski slopes. It's where some of the world's national ski teams train. According to the OECD, the Swiss are very satisfied with their lives -- they rank at the top in subjective well-being as well as jobs and earnings, and come in at number six on the OECD index.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – New Yorkers enjoy the sun in Central Park on Manhattan, New York. The United States rank number seven in the OECD list, at the top in housing, and income and wealth, but below average in work-life balance.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – Finland, the eight happiest industrialized nation, is home to Santa Claus. You can ride a reindeer sled in the Santa Claus Village, an amusement park near Rovaniemi in the Lapland region. The organization says Finland ranks at the top in education and skills, a category often highlighted as one of the most important to people surveyed.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – The ninth happiest country is the Netherlands, where you can enjoy the flowers at the Keukenhof gardens. You'll find long fields of tulips throughout the region. People in Netherlands can enjoy better than average quality of life in many of the key indicators, such as work-life balance, housing or health status. However, the country ranks below average in environmental quality. And according to the OECD, the percentage of Dutch people reporting that they trust the government fell from 66% to 54% between 2007 and 2013.

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The world's 10 happiest countries10 photos

The world's 10 happiest countries – People enjoy the beach at Oneroa Bay on Awiheke Island in New Zealand. New Zealand comes in at number 10 on the OECD Better Life Index, but ranks at the top in health status, along with Australia and Switzerland, and in social connections, along with Denmark and Iceland.

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Story highlights

Australia named the world's happiest industrialized nation, according to the OECD

Survey takes into account satisfaction, work-life balance, income and housing

Australia has been revealed as the world's happiest industrialized nation, taking the title for the fourth year running.

The so-called "lucky country" beat Norway and Sweden to take the top spot in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Better Life Index.

The OECD, an international organization uniting high-income developed countries, ranks its members according to 11 different criteria, which it views as essential to a happy life.

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Its happiness index -- one of many such indexes published each year -- is the product of ten years' research, Romina Boarini, head of OECD's monitoring well-being and progress unit, said. It differs from other indexes due to its high quality of data and interactivity with users, she added.

The OECD began investigating contributors to happiness and well-being in the early 2000s, looking at straight-forward indicators such income and wealth alongside others which are more difficult to quantify, such as civic engagement.

Other indicators used are health and education, the quality of local environment, personal security and overall satisfaction with life. The data is then analyzed to ensure it can translate across the OECD countries.

Australians enjoy above average quality of life in nearly all of them, according to the report published on Monday.

The country "down under" ranks at the top in civic engagement, which looks at voters' participation, among other criteria. It also comes out above average, in the list of 36 countries, in environmental quality, health status, housing, personal security, jobs and earnings, education and skills, subjective well-being, social connections, and income and wealth.

The survey uses scientific research to find out what makes people happy by letting them decide which criteria are the most important to them and place bigger or smaller value on each category.

Those who see the environment or work-life balance as key to their happiness can boost the value of those qualities in their own ranking and see how they compare to people who place more importance on things like education or income.

According to the 60,000 people who have shared their views so far, the most important factor for being happy is life satisfaction, with health and education close behind.

"There are differences depending on where you come from, how old you are, and sometimes whether you are a man or a woman," the OECD researchers explain in their report.

People in Japan think personal security is the top priority for well-being, and those in Latin America value education the most, the OECD says.

Australians say the most valuable is having a good balance between work and personal life, which is also the only category in which they lag behind the average.

Two countries, the UK and Iceland, dropped from last year's top 10 and were replaced by Finland at number nine, and New Zealand at number 10.

At the bottom of the ranking of the 36 industrialized nations are Greeks (34), who the OECD says suffer from the lowest life satisfaction, Mexico (35), where the biggest problem is safety, measured by murder and assault rates, and Turkey (36) which ranks poorly in the income and housing categories as well as life satisfaction and work-life balance.

But even the countries at the bottom of the chart have reasons to be happy. The OECD highlights Greece's above the average health and quality of environment and Mexico's high levels of life satisfaction.

Turkey, although still trailing behind the rest of the industrialized country, is praised for the progress in improving the quality of life of its citizens over the last two decades.